Bank charges - UK Banks
 

We spent far too much on our first trip on bank charges, even though we tried to manage it very carefully. At the time we had Oz bank accounts.

The first trip was in a 4x4, so we had loads of places to hide money. The next trip is on bicycles, which means we'll have to visit atms more frequently, resulting in more bank charges.

We have UK bank accounts at the moment, and will be travelling with GBP.

Does anyone know of any good deals at the moments with banks here in the UK with reduced (reasonable) fees for international transcations?

I just looked at the charges on my current bank (hsbc) and they are shocking to say the least.

FYI, the trip will be in China, SE Asia, India and Nepal.

Most of the transactions will be ATM withdrawels.

Thanks

The Post Office credit card doesn't charge you for use overseas, you can over pay into in the run up to your trip so you aren't running up a huge credit card bill as well.

I know a few years ago nationwide were advertising no fees for using your card abroard, don't know if thats still the case.

If transferring large 'chunks' of money to other, foreign bank accounts, the new (a year or so ago) Metro Bank charges £17 per transaction for international bank transfers.

As far as using ATMs for cash withdrawals - I use my NatWest associated card all the time in Russia. The exchange rate seems similar to what I see advertised in the streets here. The only charge is Exchange Rate Transaction Fee of about 2.5%. If, rarely, the ATM paying/foreign bank is going to make a charge it is displayed on the screen and I just cancel the transaction and go elsewhere.

An alternative I have not looked into is pre-paid cards which you load with money then draw from it - as FMF said above. I don't know what their costs might be.

Not a bad idea, paying extra into the credit card, but I do wonder if there's still a cash withdrawel charge regardless.

I know (or is that think I know...) that they charge you for cash withdrawels on credit cards, even if I had to do it here in the UK with a UK card. I wonder if they only levy that charge if you draw from the credit card without having the extra paid in money....if you know what I mean.

Yea, for credit cards you pay every time when used overseas, in all manner of charges. I believe debit cards are much better, but you still incur charges.
Guess what - none of the UK high street banks are very competitive in this area.

Recently I spent a bit of time looking at this very subject on here:-
Banking & Savings: Top Bank Accounts, Savings Accounts, Fixed Savings, Cash ISAs, Regular Savers & more
(I haven't found a better reference on this subject yet).

I did follow a few links within the site to get to "use of cash overseas", so best if you do your own research.
However, what they have in there is their recommended best deal; that used to be, quite a while ago, Nationwide, but it is not top of the list nowadays.
What does figure high up the best list are the companies who provide the pre-paid cards that Tony mentions in an earlier post - that type of system seems to be growing and I am tempted to take one on for use overseas.

The whole thing is a moving target, as ever when it comes to the banks, with best offers that recede down the best buy list as enough customers join up.

ps Metro bank is in there; there are a hand full of branches, all in London at present

I use my Santander Zero current account visa debit card and that account doesn't charge you the exchange rate fee at all. It also applies to the Zero credit card

Use an ATM Abroad - Santander - search for Zero

Also, I find the FX cards (http://www.fairfx.com) very good - when you calculate the fees vs what you get cash wise they often come out much better.

m

Fairfx is one of the current best buys in my link, along with one or two other prepay cards of this nature; noteworthy is that they are part of the Mastercard "backup" so they should be accepted widely when outside the UK.

Also, from memory of reading the pros and cons within the moneysavingexpert website, I believe that when you load up your prepaid card you lock into the current exchange rates and not whatever the rate may be when you draw cash in the future - this is no different to buying cash at any currency exchange, so not a big deal in my view; in effect the prepaid card becomes a way of carrying cash around without having it physically in your pocket.
+ I think you nominate which currency you will draw in at the time the card is loaded, = US$ or Euros typically, so there is a small penalty if you change to a different currency later.

ps I've been digging into that website and this is the bit about travelling:-
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tra...p-travel-money
Well done Matt, Santander Zero also gets an honourable mention!

I have the Currency Exchange, Foreign Exchange & International Money Transfer Experts | Caxton FX more than happy with it, they do USD, Euro and Global Traveller.

Only problem I have had was on a recent shake down to Barcelona, they (Euro and Global) wouldn't work in the unmanned toll boths or fuel stations, in France and Spain so I assume that would be a problem wordwide.

That is another recommended prepaid card in that review website.
It is a great shame (putting it mildly) that it doesn't work in the French and Spanish "machines"; after all it is backed by Visa who cover a lot of bank debit cards nowadays - Visa seem to deal with a lot of debit cards and Mastercard cover the credit cards is my impression.

Does that mean you have one card that switches between Euro and Global (and it didn't work in either mode anyway) or two separate cards?

We will all have had problems at the French fuel stations trying to use cash during the 2 hour lunch break when the kiosk is closed. :(

I am currently touring India by bicycle and have been using a Fairfx prepaid card which has worked in every ATM I have tried it in. They charge for each withdrawal but claim to give a better exchange rate than others, also if details fall into the wrong hands you can only be taken for what is in your account which can easily be topped up from your normal bank account.
Nationwide have started charging for foreign withdrawals but I believe they only pass on what the foreign bank charges them.
Travelling by bike rather than 4x4 means far fewer trips to the cash machine anyway

Two seperate cards, they worked at the counter for fuel just not at pay at the pump. I had no other problems, ATMs, bars and restaurants all worked OK.

Good feedback and thanks for more practical experience with these.
The better exchange rate claim of the companies needs to be seen in the light of how the system works; it is fixed at the time the card is loaded with cash, and each time it is topped up later. That is fair enough IMO and it equates to the process for drawing foreign currency in hard cash.
One could imagine a system whereby the exchange rate in operation would be the one relevant at the time of each transaction (which does happen with debit/credit cards), but that would be much more complex and it would transfer risk in the foreign exchange rates from the customers to the forex companies - so that won't happen any time soon!

Thanks for that; this sounds as if such cards have the same status to the fuel pumps as for non-French credit and debit cards = none of them work. I can only surmise that this is an anti-fraud action by the fuel stations, or so I have been told by Brits who live in France.
It is also why I have tended to use the peage, especially on Sundays (so that the fuel stations are actually staffed by humans).

We had one pre-paid card and found it didn't work in many places.
Halifax was the best deal before we left but that could of changed.
The Halifax service has been 100% reliable and the internet banking perfect - that's worth something when you are away from home.

Paul

Welcome to Two Bikes Running

Norwich and Peterborough building society (now merged with Yorkshire BS) have one with no charges. I think Santander and Halifax are fasing theirs out.

Current Accounts | Bank Accounts | Norwich and Peterborough Building Society


Cheap Travel Money: Top cards for spending abroad...
the font of all knowledge for fees/prepaid/current, blah de blah.

I had an Ice prepaid last year, but the helpline was only actually open 9-5, out of hours the calls went through to the currency kiosks at the airports where the ops told me to call back in working hours.
ICE Travellers Cashcard, prepaid travel money foreign currency card

might try the caxton fx one this time
might try a

Halifax Clarity Card seems to be a good - No fees at all anywhere in the world except interest on cash withdrawals. I have just applied for one.

Halifax | Credit Cards | Low rate & No Fee Cards | Clarity Credit Card